


already on the outskirts

by Muir_Wolf



Category: Big Bang Theory, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Post Reichenbach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-08
Updated: 2012-08-08
Packaged: 2017-11-11 18:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/481323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muir_Wolf/pseuds/Muir_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I’m Dr. Molly Hooper,” she says. She takes his hand, and it’s only then he realizes how completely out of place his offering it in the first place was. Her skin is warm and soft against his, and he lets go as soon as possible. It must be the jetlag, he thinks. That or the foreign soil. It’s just a handshake, anyway.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	already on the outskirts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ameliajean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ameliajean/gifts).



When he’s offered the chance to speak at the conference in London, he knows it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime sort of things. Which, unfortunately, means he also knows that it’s not something he can just turn down. Oh, he weighs his options excessively - he loathes public speaking, and airports, and most of the British Isles on principle alone - but in the end even he must bow to the inevitable. He isn’t getting out of this.

Penny, naturally, is no help at all. She’s far too excited about the entire ordeal, picking suits out for him and forcing beat-up, well-worn guidebooks at him. Leonard is worse; it’s not even jealousy, which would be understandable. He appears to be happy for Sheldon. It’s frankly unnerving. Nothing Howard says has any merit, and Raj - well, Raj is accompanying him. After their short stint living together several years ago, Sheldon has come to terms with Raj’s reliability, which he fears he will be in dire need of in a foreign country. He managed himself well enough in Switzerland, of course, but he wasn’t being required to speak. In front of several hundred colleagues. Much less intelligent colleagues, of course, but colleagues nonetheless.

Still, he packs his bags. Let’s Leonard bundle them into his car and drive them to the airport. They make it through security, although the excessive touching wears Sheldon down. They make it through the flight itself, although Sheldon forces Raj into the middle seat and barricades himself against the window. They even make it through customs, and finally back to the hotel.

Sheldon wishes, briefly, that he were less of a genius, as he is always being called upon for occasions like this, and really it’s rather hazardous to his health.

Raj, naturally, leaves to go hit on poor, unsuspecting British women. How he expects to do that, as British women appear to freeze his tongue as easily as American women, Sheldon doesn’t know. He doesn’t particularly care, though, either.

Instead, Sheldon wanders unwillingly outside. He gets directions to the most non-British restaurant he can find, and wanders the streets, clutching his umbrella tightly in his hand even though it’s not currently raining. It doesn’t matter - he knows this country. The rain will come as soon as he lets down his guard, so he isn’t planning on letting down his guard at all.

Inside the small family-run restaurant, Sheldon examines the health certifications - he read up on them before coming, naturally. He’s no rube when it comes to traveling!

He’s speaking to the hostess when he notices a woman staring quite intently at the side of his face. He finishes asking about their last inspection, and then turns and frowns at her. She flushes, and jerks away awkwardly. Sheldon lets it go. He’s hungry and jet-lagged and almost positive that this restaurant falls far below his standards, but he’s also unwilling to go back out and wander these no-doubt dangerous streets. Especially not when it’s probably about to rain.

There’s only one table left at the present moment, though, and the hostess tells him there’ll be a fifteen minute wait. The woman stares at him again, and then darts forward hesitantly.

“I’m eating by myself,” she says uncertainty. He stares at her with no little confusion, and she fidgets. ”It’s a two-person table, I mean, and it’s mine, and you could sit with me if you wanted so you didn’t have to wait - and we wouldn’t have to talk or anything if you didn’t want to?”

He considers for a moment, and then nods. Vaguely he wonders if she’s part of the conference, and therefore recognizes him. He wonders if perhaps she’ll want him to sign something?

The hostess smirks as she looks between the two of them, but leads them to the small table in the corner. Sheldon sits down and starts skimming the menu, while the woman continues to dart curious looks at him. After a moment, his mother’s voice kicks in in his head.

“Dr. Sheldon Cooper,” he says, holding out a hand. ”Thank you for sharing the table.”

“I’m Dr. Molly Hooper,” she says. She takes his hand, and it’s only then he realizes how completely out of place his offering it in the first place was. Her skin is warm and soft against his, and he lets go as soon as possible. It must be the jetlag, he thinks. That or the foreign soil. It’s just a handshake, anyway.

“You…remind me of someone,” Molly says after a moment, looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes as she pretends to skim the menu. It isn’t the first time he’s heard that, although usually it’s followed by a cruel remark disguised as something clever. He waits, but nothing follows.

“Who?”

“Just an old friend,” she says. She looks oddly nostalgic for a moment, and then visibly shakes it off. ”Anyway,” she says. ”Business or pleasure?”

“Business,” he says. She looks up at him, waiting for more, and he preens slightly, finally warming up to the thought of a dinner companion. “I’m speaking at a conference tomorrow,” he says, and when she nods for him to continue, he does.

An hour and a not terrible dinner later, Sheldon decides that the night hasn’t been a complete waste. Molly, it turns out, is an excellent listener. She also has an interesting job herself, and when she offers him a tour of the morgue, he finds himself saying yes.

It’s not as if Raj will have returned by now – he’ll almost certainly still be wandering the streets of London hoping his luck will miraculously change.

Besides, he thinks, there’s a certain…charm in the way Molly looks at him, as if she thinks he won’t notice her gaze.

“Your friend,” he says, as Molly hails a cab. “Are you colleagues?”

Molly smiles back at him as she opens the cab door, but he can’t quite read the expression on her face.

“It doesn’t really matter,” she says, sliding into the cab. She leans a little into the empty space between them. “He isn’t here anymore.”

Sheldon is suddenly sure he’s misstepped, but Molly doesn’t seem to mind. Instead, she picks the conversation back up, asking him a few questions and answering a few of his. While she’s in a different discipline, it’s always pleasant to find someone on a similar intellectual plane, and Molly is clearly quite clever.

Besides, she’s just about every mystery novel that ever kept him up late at night come alive, and that – well, that’s something he’ll never admit to finding thrilling, but he does.

They stay up talking far too late, and Sheldon might blame it on timezones and the stress of speaking in front of hundreds of colleagues, but.

But Raj shoots him a knowing grin, and Sheldon has Molly’s phone number programmed into his phone and plans for dinner that night after the conference.  
__

_Finis_


End file.
